crewcrazy

I'm sure the fans were cheering "SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUP" as Ned came out to get Suppan.

It's painful to watch Suppan pitch tonight...he can't hit the strike zone, and when he does, he's getting hit hard. 7 hits in 1.2 innings is crazy, and that's not even counting his 2 or 3 walks. Looks like DiFelice is going to get a lot of innings tonight.

I realize Hernandez is a pretty bad defensive catcher, but let's try to avoid running your way out of rallies, guys. With Branyan up and only 1 out, you have to keep the sac fly possibility open by not getting picked off (even though Russ struck out). Oh well...at least they got 2 of them back. Keep chipping away and they'll be fine.

Although I'm perfectly okay with trying to hit home runs as long as they actually do. Way to go JJ. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

I guess Suppan was due for a clunker at home, but it sucks being singled to death in the first inning. Hopefully the Brewers can come back in the bottom half of the inning and at least get one run back early. Knowing this team's patience, though, I have a bad feeling that Liz -- despite all his control issues -- will end up cruising through the first on 7 pitches because everyone's going to step into the box trying to hit a home run to close the gap. Please show some patience at the plate, guys.

I'm mildly surprised that word of an offer actually reached Prince. Boras is usually the type to "neglect" telling his players about offers a team made (one of the reasons why Kenny Rogers fired him). I'd say it's a moral victory that Boras is actually telling Prince these things, even though he apparently turned the offer down. At least they're talking...who knows, maybe sometime in the future they'll figure something out and the Brewers will be able to keep him one year past arby.

They actually had a nice feature on Russell Branyan on Baseball Tonight last night, and Eduardo Perez credited Branyan's success this season to changing his batting stance to be more open (he practically looks like Luis Gonzalez standing in there now it's so open). They did a split-screen of him hitting a home run for Tampa Bay a few years ago and him hitting a home run in Milwaukee this year. In Tampa, he was in an extremely closed stance and was practically diving over the plate during his swing, using one of his old school violent hacks. Then they showed a home run of his from this year with his open stance, where he stayed back on a pitch and effortlessly flicked it 450 feet. They spent a good 5 minutes or so on Branyan alone. Even ESPN is catching on to the Power of 3TO.

Ricciardi's turned into a Looney Tunes character. The pressure of trying to compete with Boston and New York must be getting to him, because he's been a a walking contradiction for a few years now. I remember when the Blue Jays were in the bidding war for Gil Meche, and when he found out that Meche decided to go to Kansas City instead, he flipped out: http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Baseball/MoneyMatters/2006/12/09/2704207-sun.html Then, of course, there's the way he handled the John Gibbons/Ted Lilly dispute, the John Gibbons/Shea Hillenbrand dispute, cutting Frank Thomas after a handful of bad at-bats, whining about not getting enough money to spend from management (then getting that money and spending it on scrappy guys like Eckstein), etc. The guy's gotten so far away from his days in Oakland that it's like he's not thinking like the same guy anymore. At this point, he really just needs to be put out of his misery.

I've heard rumors that Brian Cashman may be a candidate for Seattle's GM spot if he doesn't feel like returning to the Yankees. Apparently Seattle is a pretty good place for a GM to land -- the owner is generally hands-off and hands you boatloads of cash (not as much as the Yankees, but they can afford to sign Ichiro to an $80 million extension and give out huge contracts to Sexson and Beltre without a sweat), they have one of the best parks in the American League, there's a passionate fanbase, they have a decent farm system, the media is generally calm unless your name is Bill Bavasi, and the city itself is beautiful. It would definitely beat having to answer to Crazy Hank and the New York media, but who knows if Cashman would want to switch coasts. Paul DePodesta is probably another candidate they should consider after suffering through the Bavasi era. I was kind of surprised that McLaren wasn't let go at the same time as Bavasi, but it was pretty clear that McLaren wasn't going to manage past this year anyway...you might as well just let him go now before he comes out with another tirade.

Unfortunate for the Cubs, but I'd be shocked if he missed more than one start. Like someone else said, he has something cramp up every month, so I don't think they have much to worry about. I did get a kick out of Tim Kurkjian throwing in Ben Sheets' name casually as a trade possibility, but Zambrano injury or not I'd be surprised if A.J. Burnett's not a Cub by August.

Is there anyone less patient with RISP than Ryan Braun? Runners at 2nd and 3rd with a chance the break the game wide open, and that was one of his worst ABs of the year...ugh. I am digging the early lead, though. Bush always seems to calm down when he gets a nice lead early.

I think the laid-back reputation comes from the way he deals with the media. If you saw the Mets press conference yesterday, they let the media ask Manuel a ton of questions, and he was definitely comfortable behind the microphone -- joking with the media members, giving long answers to questions that weren't really answers, and never really getting agitated at a question. After the way Willie Randolph butchered the Mets' bullpen, they asked him what his bullpen philosophy was and he basically said "throw strikes...there's no philosophy to it." He also talked about how he hates to run just for the sake of running and he's more worried about teaching guys when to run (which he stressed was rare).

Apparently, after Manuel heard that Reyes went crying into the clubhouse, he followed him in there and chewed him out for several minutes. Reyes sheepishly re-appeared in the dugout with his tail between his legs, and Manuel followed. One of the things that sunk Willie was he let players show him up on the field like that. I think it was pretty important that Manuel showed the rest of the team that he wasn't taking any crap like the act Reyes pulled in the first inning. Kind of surprising, considering his reputation from his days in Chicago was that he was a very laid-back guy.

Joe Dillon trying to play second base makes me want to cry. Against a righty, why not give The Hurricane a few more ABs? At least you know he's going to be good with the leather. I'm excited to see what Manny can do tonight...he's really turned it on lately and he's been lights-out at home. Should be a good game.

Sabathia's younger, left-handed, and has no injury history...I think that makes him more valuable than guys like Sheets or Harden. Of course, if it was Steve Phillips talking about it, he probably rationalized it by saying that Sabathia has more career wins or he's had playoff experience or something like that.

Outside of the New York press, does anybody even think Cabrera's any good? I would really want Hughes as part of that package, though. Can you imagine Gallardo-Hughes as 1-2 for the next four to five years? I'm practically salivating. I'm normally not high on the Melk Man, either, but he'd be a decent option in centerfield post-Cameron. He's certainly better than TGJ and plays some very good defense. IMO, he could be a pretty decent #2 hitter, too. For whatever reason the New York media makes him out to be better than he really is, but he could still be a pretty good player in the future once he starts taking walks...I think the ability is definitely there (he did have an OBP of .360 in 460 ABs in 2006, but slipped to .327 last year). I think it's pretty much a moot point, though, since I don't think Hank Steinbrenner would allow Cashman to trade Cabrera anyway. Steinbrenner's going to kick and scream for a top-of-the-line replacement, but he won't want to give up anything substantial for that player because they're still trying to get into the playoffs. From the Yankees' perspective, it wouldn't make much sense to trade Melky and Phil Hughes if they're trying to make the playoffs now -- that would be more of an offseason deal, when they would still have time to go out and buy replacements for those players, too. They're probably more likely to give up some minor leaguers with a little potential for Paul Byrd and Randy Wolf and just hope for the best.

Willie Randolph was just as bad at managing his bullpen as Ned Yost is. While a lot of people don't like Ned's on-field decisions, at least it's generally accepted that he's a good manager behind closed doors in the clubhouse. Willie Randolph wasn't. He was horrible at keeping things under control in the Mets clubhouse, and now that club is basically divided between the Latin players and the non-Latin players. They had no chemistry under Randolph, and the Latin players had absolutely no respect for him. The Mets desperately needed someone else in that clubhouse who could try to mend some of those differences. Now, of course, Omar Minaya has his hand deep in this cookie jar, so he's not completely without blame, either. He traded away Lastings Milledge for Ryan Church and Brian Schneider. He took on Carlos Delgado's mammoth contract. He extended Luis Castillo when it was pretty clear he wasn't the player he used to be. He counted on guys like Moises Alou, Pedro Martinez, and Orlando Hernandez to stay healthy. He knew he had a bullpen weakness and unlike Doug Melvin, didn't even try to fix it. The Mets don't have much of a farm system to speak of. He completely botched this firing process -- everyone's known for the past week that it was going to happen soon, and it got leaked out that they were also planning on firing the pitching coach and the first base coach. Unless the Mets put together something special under Jerry Manuel, Omar probably shouldn't be around next year, either...I know the Wilpons would like nothing better than to start over with a new manager and a new GM as they head into their new park next year.

The 12-year old that still resides deep inside of me giggled a bit when I saw the NYT headline of "Wang Will Be on Crutches for Six Weeks", or other headlines like "Loss of Wang Could Hurt Yankees". I think the Yankees probably go out looking for possible replacements now, but they're probably not going to find anything for a couple more weeks. The talks about Sabathia could get serious, but do the Yankees really have much that the Indians would want? Would the Indians, who are still set up to be AL contenders for years to come, want to trade Sabathia to another potential AL contender? At only 5-6 games out of a winnable AL Central, do the Indians even call it quits this early and trade Sabathia at all? I'm sure Melvin will get the requisite call from the Yankees about Sheets, but I don't know if it they would go very far. Just out of pure hatred for the Yankees, I'd hate to see Sheets go there for anything less than Hughes and Cabrera, but that's probably an unrealistic demand. I think the Yankees will end up having to look at guys like Randy Wolf to fill the gap, otherwise they'll probably have to start throwing guys like Jeff Karstens and Darrell Rasner out there.

They're dancing in the streets of Seattle. I don't think there's been a worse GM in the league over the past few years, with the exception of maybe Sabean in San Francisco. The fact that he gave up so much for Erik Bedard and he hasn't performed very well probably sealed Bavasi's fate, but their draft this year was also pretty questionable. Seattle's a team that needs a complete retooling, from the general manager down to the grounds crew. They fired their hitting coach a few days ago and got blasted by a lot of people for using him as a scapegoat (RotoWorld, for one) when Bavasi was still being employed and filled the roster full of guys like Jose Vidro and Richie Sexson. Now that Bavasi is gone, I wouldn't be surprised to see McLaren let go soon just so they can start over from scratch.

Another surprisingly good start from McClung, and Torres was incredible after pitching 2.1 innings last night -- I was definitely expecting the worst. Kendall had a nice day at the plate, and hopefully Cameron can get into a groove after hitting that go-ahead home run.

Lineup from TH: RF Corey Hart 2B Joe Dillon LF Ryan Braun 1B Prince Fielder CF Mike Cameron 3B Bill Hall C Jason Kendall SS Craig Counsell RHP Jeff Suppan He also adds that Riske threw a live BP session today and hopes to be sent out on a minor league rehab assignment soon.

I'll start worrying about the Braves when they can figure out how to win on the road again. While the Brewers haven't been world-beaters away from home, either, the Braves just flat-out stink away from Turner Field. I really don't think the Mets will do much damage unless they improbably fire Willie Randolph soon and go out to get some bullpen help. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Dodgers make a run out in the West, though, especially with how bad that division has been. Colorado has gotten off to such a bad start that they'd need another ridiculously long winning streak to get back into it. In the end, I think it'll be between St. Louis, Florida, Milwaukee, and Los Angeles. I agree with naivin that the Brewers should just focus on staying in the top 3 spots for the wildcard -- if they can avoid having to jump over too many teams, it'll definitely be a benefit in the long run...especially since they have the benefit of games against the Cards to directly make up games.

While I do think pitchers are pitching him differently this year, I don't think it's because there isn't a "true" power hitter behind him in the lineup. He hit 50 home runs last year with a combination of Johnny Estrada, Bill Hall, and Corey Hart hitting behind him. The scouting report is just out on Prince now, and pitchers know how to jam him better and avoid letting him hit as many flyballs. It's up to Prince to fix his swing and mindset at the plate, not his diet. Eating a hamburger won't cause Carlos Zambrano to hang a slider.

With Hart batting leadoff, what I don't really like is having your only two lefties hit back-to-back when Branyan is in the lineup and batting 5th. I wouldn't mind seeing Cameron and Branyan flip-flopped, but Cameron has said he's always been the most comfortable hitting 6th, so I'd be hesitant to move him. Having two lefties hit back-to-back isn't the end of the world (especially when the alternative is Bill Hall), but turning LOOGYs into LTOGYs makes me a bit nervous. It's been working so far, though, so at least Ned hasn't taken the Dusty Baker "striped bass" lineup approach.

I'm also wondering how much of Prince's perceived "attitude problem" is being fabricated. It could just be the fact that Prince doesn't give as many good soundbites as Ryan Braun, so instead of seeing him as just a quiet guy, they see him as a guy that doesn't like the media (which could be the case, too -- if you were Prince Fielder and you've been bashed by everyone in the national media after that slanted E:60 piece about his dad and all the flak he's caught for his vegetarianism, would you trust reporters you're not familiar with?). It's almost like the media thinks "Boras + Not a Good Interview = Attitude Problem". Instead of just assuming the guy has an attitude problem because he doesn't like microphones being shoved in his face, they should ask his teammates what they think of him. Ask Rickie Weeks. Ask Corey Hart. Ask J.J. Hardy. And maybe consider that he hasn't been happy with his production so far this year, so he's not going to appreciate hearing the "Why aren't you hitting more home runs?" question for the 200th time. Edit: Just another point...how much of Justice's perception would be based on the fact that Prince said he was unhappy with his contract earlier this year? Fielder caught a ton of criticism for that as well, and nearly every national media voice weighed in. Of course, when Cole Hamels and Nick Markakis made similar remarks in the days following Prince's comments, they went largely unnoticed, and you rarely hear bad things about those two.